Overcrowding sees pupils miss out on PE and playtime

Published on Tuesday 20 January 2009 08:49

CHILDREN are missing out on school lunches, vital PE lessons and lunchtime play because of critical overcrowding in a popular city primary.

Parents say lack of space at South Morningside Primary also means the school will not be able to meet Scottish Government guidelines to reduce P1-3 class sizes to 18.

The main school building in Comiston Road is at bursting point, with some classrooms unable to accommodate even the legal limit of 33 pupils because they are so small.

Children have to queue just to get a seat in the tiny dining room, meaning those who are last in line miss out on getting time to play outside during their lunch break.

Only around 20 per cent of pupils take a hot school meal, which is prepared at another school, compared to a city average of almost 40 per cent. The rest of the pupils opt to eat packed lunches so they can have more time to play, but they have to eat in their classrooms because there is no space in the dining hall.

Parents say the overcrowding also impacts on the outside space, as four "hut" classrooms had to be built in the 1970s, eating into the playground. They say children can go for weeks at a time without any PE lessons as the gym hall is used for a number of other activities.

Figures published last year revealed that South Morningside pupils received an average of just 46 minutes of PE per week instead of the recommended two hours.

Campaigners fighting for additional space for the school's 611 pupils are calling on the city council to take urgent action by buying the nearby Braid Centre so the school can provide extra space.

They warn time is running out for the school, as the closing date for the purchase of the building is February 3 and they say there is no other alternative land nearby.

Campaigner Marion Calder said: "Our medical room's been turned into a resource centre, there's no break-out space so children have to sit in the stairwells for working in small groups or learning support and if the gym hall is being used for something else, the children miss out on PE."

Miss Calder said her son Ben, ten, has to eat his lunch in his crowded classroom and once went without PE for five weeks as the hall was constantly in use.

Fellow campaigner Chris MacSporran, who has two children at the school, said: "(buying the Braid Centre] is the only option left for the school. Once that's gone, we're snookered as there's no other land in this area."

The school's nursery children are based outside the main Victorian building, at Fairmilehead, while two of its P1 classes are in rented accommodation at the Cluny Centre on Cluny Drive. The pupils based at the Cluny Centre have no outdoor playground area and are not able to have school dinners as there is no hot meal provision.

The idea for the Braid Centre is that it would become home to the whole of the junior school, allowing more space in the main building for the older pupils.

City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said the council was "currently looking at the options for buying the property".